Priya Shah

Dance

Contact

243 Hearst Gym
510-642-4199
vishnupriyashah@berkeley.edu

Office Hour: Tuesdays 4-5pm.

About Priya Shah

Dance educator and choreographer, Vishnupriya (Priya) Shah, holds a MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. Priya is educated in both the classical and contemporary dance vocabularies. Priya trained under the direction of Ronn Guidi (Founder of the Oakland Ballet). She has taught and choreographed for a number of esteemed dance organizations including, the Oakland Ballet Academy, Ballet Pacifica and Cal Performances. Priya has also taught at the collegiate level at UC Irvine, Mira Costa College, City College of San Francisco, and Laney College. In addition, Priya served as a Ballet Mistress to celebrated dance artists David Allan (former Soloist, The National Ballet of Canada), Douglas Becker (former Dancer, The Forsythe Company), and Evelyn Cisneros-Legate (former Principle Dancer, San Francisco Ballet), and has restaged many classical and contemporary works. She has also worked alongside Donald McKayle (Graduate Committee Member), and many former dancers of American Ballet Theatre. During her time as a graduate student, Priya studied dance history and published a thesis entitled Ballet and Female Empowerment: Reinvestigating Giselle. She also produced a modern full-length production of Giselle. While at UC Irvine, Priya managed a collaboration of UC Irvine’s elite dancers and dancers at the Conservatoire National Supieure de Paris in France. Priya has also taught at the San Francisco Ballet School, and the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts (EBCPA) where she co-directed EBCPA’s Iron Triangle Urban Ballet. Priya has chosen to devote her life to making the performing arts accessible to the greater Bay Area community.